The women doing everything to become single mums

Stephanie Holt is ready to start a family. She’s 26-years-old and isn’t currently in a relationship, but that won’t stop her.

Holt is one of a host of Australians using advances in fertility science to become solo parents.

She has selected a sperm donor, and undergone the process of artificial insemination to become a single mum.

“Having a family is really big for me,” she tells SBS Insight.

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“My mum and dad split when my dad was in the army, and I left my mum when I was about 14 so my twin sister and I were in and out of foster care.”

Holt says her desire to have a child at this stage in her life is rooted in her traumatic upbringing, and she knew she would pursue this path when her sister came close to death due to epilepsy back in 2011.

“I just knew I needed a family to fill the hole that I missed out growing up in,” she says.

“I feel like there’s missing puzzle piece from my childhood and I feel like a baby will help to heal that missing piece.”

While Holt was rejected for an intrauterine insemination (IUI) referral by the first doctor she visited, a second sent her to a psychologist.

After taking part in multiple counselling sessions, she was eventually cleared to start IUI a year later.

Unfortunately, six rounds of IUI with two different sperm donors failed to result in a pregnancy, so Holt progressed to IVF treatment. She’s just found out that she’s expecting after her second round.

Carrie Cooper-Moore, 36, is just at the beginning of a similar process. She’s just undergone her first IUI – a process which took less than 30 minutes – and although it was unsuccessful, she’s vowed to continue.

“This is absolutely Plan A, this is not a backup, this is not me being desperate, and it’s not be being lonely,” she tells Insight on Tuesday night's episode.

“It's not, I guess the old fashioned way of doing things but I am very much a 21st century person. I'm so grateful for all these advances and technologies.

“I could be a single woman and choose to have a baby on my own.”

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